Biden 'literally' lambasted on Twitter

Vice President Joe Biden was lambasted on Twitter for his misuse of the word “literally” during his Thursday night speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.

He used the word nine times, according to a search of the transcription service TVEyes.

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For example: “We now find ourselves at the hinge of history, and the direction we turn is not figuratively, it’s literally in your hands.”

And: “Look, Barack [Obama] understood that the search for bin Laden was about a lot more than taking a monstrous leader off the battlefield. It was about so much more than that. It was about righting an unspeakable wrong. It was about — literally, it was about healing an unbearable wound, a nearly unbearable wound in America’s heart.”

And: “I want to show you the character of a leader who had what it took when the American people literally stood on the brink of a new depression.”

It’s no surprise, then, that the hashtag “#literally” spread on Twitter, where a drinking game was born and would-be grammarians tweeted quips such as:

If you take a drink every time Biden says "literally," you literally will be passed out by the time Obama takes the stage. #dnc2012